After the Centre’s move to fix minimum import price for black pepper at ₹500 a kg, the consortium of pepper growers’ organisation has now urged the government to restrict the import of the commodity only to two major ports.
Stating that pepper is grown mainly in Karnataka and Kerala, Vishwanath KK, coordinator of the consortium of pepper growers’ organisation, said the consortium wants the government to restrict the import to ports in these two States. Apart from this, the government should also take action to certify the quality of the imported commodity.
It may be mentioned here that the consortium had earlier informed the Union Commerce Ministry that the import of inferior quality pepper from Vietnam was the main reason for the decline in the price of the commodity in the domestic market.
Seeking stringent measures to curb the import of pepper, Konkodi Padmanabha, convenor of the consortium, said that the government should fix anti-dumping duty on this commodity.
He also demanded that the government increase the import duty on black pepper from the present 64 per cent to 108 per cent.